Dolls and toy figures have enjoyed long term extended popularity among children of a wide age group and continue to be a strong group of product lines for most toy manufacturers. Because of the great and extending popularity of dolls and toy figures, a virtually endless variety of dolls and toy figures have been created by practitioners in the art through the years. The dolls and toy figures have been provided in human resembling figures, fantasy-type figures including cartoon and other fictional characters as well as animal-like figures which generally resemble fanciful animals such as teddy bears or the like. In addition, toy figures generally described as action figures have also been provided in a variety of appearances generally characterized by exaggerated human-like appearances representing characters such as warriors, heroes, villains or the like.
In many dolls and toy figures, the clothing or apparel or other associated fabric accessories of the doll or toy figure form an essential component in the entertainment and amusement provided by the doll or toy figure. For example, dolls having removable clothing which the child user may "dress" in a variety of fashion items and combining accessories are quite common in the marketplace. One of the more popular types of such dolls or toy figures are often referred to as fashion dolls in which elaborate and often exotic clothing is provided. A similar type of doll or toy figure generally referred to as fantasy dolls is provided with clothing is best described as costuming and provides the doll with a well recognized or highly fantasized appearance such as a ghost or fairy godmother or other recognizable character. In such clothing article related type dolls, very extended wardrobes are often available to provide numerous clothing changes.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,944,368 issued to O'Brian, et al. sets forth TOY DOLL STRUCTURES in which a human-like doll figure is independently supported by a base member and a plurality of clothing articles are formed of a resilient material such as plastic and are elastically deformable to be fitted upon the doll body in a snap-fit or resilient attachment. The clothing articles are preferably formed of a sheet of resilient thermoplastic material or the like and may be imprinted with clothing appearance or designs.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,783,554 issued to Shapero sets forth APPLIABLE DOLL DECORATIONS in which a doll construction kit enables a child to mold a three-dimensional doll and decorate it with preprinted labels such that the doll has an attractive appearance similar to that of a doll wholly constructed at a factory. Preprinted labels defining clothing and facial and hair features are provided for application to a molded doll. The labels are constructed of a rubber-like material which facilitates the stretching of the labels when applied to a contoured doll surface to eliminate wrinkles.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,293,796 issued to Strader sets forth a FORMABLE SHEET HAVING PILE FABRIC SECURED TO BOTH SURFACES in which a flexible simulated animal hide is bonded to a malleable metal foil liner to provide a moldable or formable animal hide. This moldable or formable animal hide is then applied to a basic animal figure and formed to correspond to the animal body and secure the animal hide to the toy animal figure.
While the foregoing prior art devices referred to and described above have provided a substantial degree of enjoyment and amusement for a wide variety of child users, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore interesting and improved toy figures and dolls.